A future personalized

Fast Company recently posted an article describing what IDEO, a global design consultancy used by Fortune 500 companies, believes journalism will look like after its traditional business models have collapsed.
The article criticizes news organizations for their loss of credibility, clunky and inefficient distribution systems and for marginalizing consumers in the dialogue of how to save journalism.
Yet IDEO still has hope for the future of news. It forsees a future of highly-contextualized hyper-local citizen journalism that contributes to a dense web of collective knowledge thriving on immediacy. From the story:

In these scenarios, we see that information has become even more personalized and hyperlocal--and, paradoxically, more communal, participatory, and global. Journalism is more like having a conversation. People speak with unique voices, take ownership of content, and establish credibility, which in turn enables strong communities in which news can thrive.

View the story here. See discussion about the future of journalism here.

What do you think of IDEO's vision of journalism's future? Comment and tell us.

Riding the wave

This week Google announced its new communication tool, Wave.

Due out sometime this year, the application imcorporates the elements of conversation and an electronic documents.

With Wave, people can communicate and collaborate with text, photos, videos, and maps in real-time.
Participants can also reply anywhere in a message feed, edit content and add participants to the process. 

The product idea, which originated from the success of email and instant messaging, has been in the works for more than two years.

From the post:

"It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave and see how it evolved," said Lars Rasmussen, Google's software engineering manager.

Nieman Foundation selects biz journalists

Business journalists are among the 24 journalists selected for the Nieman Foundation for Journalism's 72nd class of fellows.
Announced Tuesday, the class of 2010 includes Wired magazine contributing editor, Jeff Howe who will examine crowdsourcing and its use in the development of sustainable journalism models.
Other fellows focusing on business issues will research topics like the economic impact of Latin American immigrants into the United States and the interconnection of the economy with life issues like foreign policy and health care.
See a full list of the 2009-2010 fellows here.